Going Plus Ultra – My Hero: One’s Justice is an Almighty Knockout

My Hero Academia is an anime and manga that doesn’t need an introduction, and it’s one that lends itself perfectly to a fighting game. Popular for all the right reasons, the series circles around a school for superheroes, where having powers or a “Quirk” is the norm, molding the next generation into heroes to keep the peace against the villains of the world that run amok. It’s a simple and great set-up, even greater to throw the show’s loved and loathed together into an arena for some 3 vs 3 fighting action.

It has to be said straight off the bat that My Hero: One’s Justice is an essential purchase for any fan of the series, not only does it look sublime and capture the essence of the show so well, the game is smooth, frantic and holds a lot of depth. The roster of playable characters available to play at the Bandai Namco event was very generous, from explosive bad boy Katsuki and feather weight Ochaco to the villainous Stain and maniacal Himiko plus more, with slots that had yet to be filled, all your favorites are there. There’s a lot of strategy that can come into play thanks to the host of heroes present, as you pick a fighter and two sidekicks to come into battle with you, how you play and who you want to bring in are all things to be considered and can easily turn the tide of battle. Do you call upon gravity bending Ochaco to incapacitate a foe at just the right moment, or will you bring along a fireblast from flaming yet frozen Shoto? The cacophony of Quirks to play with, whilst unleashing moves and combos is fan-service enough, but seeing these match ups through fights that flow with finesse is awesome to both play and see.

Fighters are thrown through walls revealing more space to play with, into them too, the fight turning to a 90 degree angle as you continue trading blows. The landscape of battle is always dynamic, stages so far covering the school grounds, training facilities, the League of Villains Hideout, Beast’s Forest and more during both day and night. What has to be commended is the way a character’s Quirk is translated into gameplay, as whilst a series fraught in fights naturally works as a fighting game, making use of Aizawa’s scarf tendrils and Erasure Quirk to significantly nerf a foe mid battle feels great, as does unleashing Himiko’s needles to transform into your foe some tricksy combat options. There’s of course a jump and general attack button, but the two others go to quirk moves, to really spice up the depth and breadth of Quirk related combos available to you. One’s Justice is easily everything a fan could want from a My Hero Academia game, one we can’t wait to see more of when the title launches in two weeks.